Resources and information

Below is information on, and examples of, local government adaptation initiatives, which can cover everything from water-sensitive urban design to green infrastructure, flood-risk planning, emergency responses, and updating asset and risk registers.

Minimising the impacts of extreme heat in local communities

Extreme heat events have killed more Australians in the past 200 years than any other natural hazard and this is likely to increase with climate change.

To assist communities to be safe from, prepared for and resilient to current and projected risks of extreme heat, the Office of Environment and Heritage has lead the development of a guide to assist local government better understand and minimise the impacts of extreme heat on local communities.

Increasing Resilience to Climate Change Grants program

This partnership program between LGNSW and the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) provides funding to address identified climate change risks and vulnerabilities facing NSW local councils.

The Climate Change Fund is providing $3.6 million of funding under the 4 year program, with $1,100,000 of funding available in Round 1. Grants are available to individual councils and for regional projects across a number of councils. Collaboration with one or more councils, regional organisations, private sector or government agencies, community groups and other organisations is encouraged. Applications under Round one of the program close on 1 March 2019.

The program is administered by Local Government NSW (LGNSW). For more information, contact Liesl Laker at OEH on (02) 9995 6361 or Denise Anderson at LGNSW on (02) 9242 4056.

Leading land-use case studies by local government

Land-use planning strategies are an important part of Local Government's response in mitigating and preparing for climate change. Local Government NSW and OEH have prepared case studies on how three NSW councils have addressed the need to prepare for climate change through land-use planning strategies. The case studies are:

Urban green cover

The Impacts and Adaptation team at OEH, in partnership with the NSW Government Architect’s Office, have developed resources to encourage best-practice implementation of strategies for reducing thermal loading in urban environments. These strategies provide co-benefits such as reduced energy costs for cooling, improved stormwater management, cleaner air and improved biodiversity habitat. The resources include:

Technical Guidelines for Urban Green Cover in NSW: Practical information for local government and built environment professionals to plan, procure and implement vegetated and reflective roofs, green walls, street plantings, permeable and reflective road surfaces, and cool open spaces. These will be released in early 2015.

The NSW Adaptation Research Hub

The NSW Adaptation Research Hub is a network of leading experts and researchers in adaptation in NSW. The research outputs are meeting identified gaps in adaptation knowledge, and they may help local governments to apply adaptation within their regions.

Do you want to see how climate change will affect your region?

This site works best when viewed in a modern browser, for instance Internet Explorer 11 or latest versions of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

The Adapt NSW site now has an interactive map that allows you to see how climate change is projected to affect your region. You can look at the high resolution grid maps which display climate change at 10km scale or the regional maps which provide a summary for your region. Click through the variables and different time periods to see how the climate is projected to change for your region.

Are you looking for climate change data?

For the first time, the NSW and ACT Regional Climate Model (NARCLiM) allows you access to high resolution climate change data. This data is in a format that can be inputted directly into most biophysical models. You can choose the variable, time period and location of the data you want to download. The data portal provides instructions on how to download the data.

Do you want to learn more about climate change?

The About Climate Change tab provides a one stop shop for information on how and why our climate is changing. There is information to help understand the causes of climate change, climate change modelling, evidence of climate change today and how NSW is responding to the challenge.

Do you want to know how to adapt to climate change?

Climate change projections help us to understand how climate change is going to impact us. We then need to know how to adapt to those impacts. Adapting to climate change provides information on what adaptation is, sector specific issues and responses, and the process you can go through to understand and respond to the risks to and vulnerabilities of your services, assets and community from climate change.